Culture Warriors category archive
The Lake Effect 0
Thom and Dean Obeidallah discuss Arizona Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, plus a couple of other topics.
Courting Disaster 0
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Gene Collier is less than sanguine about how the Supreme Supremacist Court might act in a case involving the “Independent State Legislature Theory,” if they choose to hear it, especially in the light of some of their recent decisions. An excerpt; follow the link for his reasoning.
The Mind Closers 0
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Maureen Downey decided to talk with some students to find out what they think about parents and others exercising their freedom of screech to keep said students from actually learning stuff about life. Here’s a bit of her column (emphasis added):
“I would ask them not even to change their viewpoint, but to keep an open mind. Even though I didn’t agree with what the parents were saying, I still listened. They refused to listen. Whenever someone would speak against book bans, they would start yelling,” said Sachdeva. “I also wish they were more informed. They were taking so many things out of context.”
The Mechanics of Hate 0
Bernard Cohen, writing at Psychology Today Blogs, explores the work of Aaron Beck, considered the father of cognitive therapy. Among the topics Beck explored was “the cognitive basis of anger, hostility, and violence”; Cohen focuses on that aspect of his work. Given the current state of dis coarse discourse, in which many folks don’t seem happy unless they are hating, I found this a worthwhile read. Here’s a bit (emphasis in the original):
Sounds familiar, does it not?
Follow the link for the rest.
Still Rising Again after All These Years 0
The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Helen Ubinas is less than sanguine. She argues that
Follow the link for her reasoning.
Backfire, a Notion of Immigrants Dept. 0
It’s almost poetic . . . .
Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar’s certifications allow the mostly Venezuelan migrants to apply for special U-visas pending his department’s investigation of the Sept. 14 flight to Martha’s Vineyard, according to an ACLU Massachusetts statement Thursday. U-visas would allow the migrants to remain in the U.S. lawfully as the criminal investigation by Salazar’s department and the Bexar County District Attorney’s Office proceeds.
In another statement, Salazar said that “based upon the claims of migrants being transported from Bexar County under false pretenses, we are investigating this case as possible unlawful restraint,” a misdemeanor.
Follow the link for the complete report.
“The Vapors” 0
PoliticalProf clutches his pearls and falls upon his fainting couch.
Republican Family Values . . . 0
. . . have always been a con to ensnare the gullible, but, when you look closely, there’s no there there.
Dis Coarse Discourse, the Gulled and the Gullible Dept. 0
Sam and his crew discuss the Republicans’ demonizing of trans persons (who, again, are a minuscule portion of the population).
We will remain in peril as long as a significant portion of our polity eagerly laps up lies. And as long as “social” media persists in propogating prevarication.
Aside:
Why are Republicans so obsessed with sex?
Freedom of Screech 0
Jonathan Friedman of PEN America argues forcefully that the current crusade against books, particularly books available to students, is ideologically driven and unprecedented in the level of coordination amongst the anti-idea brigades and that it is part of a larger crusade against public education in general. Here’s a bit from his article:
In Walton, Florida, when the superintendent decided to yank two dozen books off school library shelves, for example, he told the press, “I haven’t read one paragraph of the books at this time.” His decision to pull those titles was done unilaterally, based on a list emailed to him by one of these advocacy groups. Those groups somehow held more sway than the views of teachers, librarians and parents who disagreed with the bans in the district.
The entire article is worth the three or four minutes it will take you to read it.
Republican Family Values 0
There been quite a bit of who-shot-john lately about Herschel Walker and his family values (or perhaps one should say, “families values”). Some are taken aback that, despite his family values (or lack thereof), Republicans seem to still support him in his race against Georgia’s Senator Warnock.
Will Bunch has a theory as to why that is. Here’s a bit of his article:
The conservative movement is about one thing: preserving traditional hierarchies, especially around white privilege and patriarchy, by any means necessary. In the past, democracy — in times and places where white Protestants were the majority — often served that agenda well, and there were dirty tricks like Jim Crow laws for the places where it didn’t. But in an increasingly diverse and better-educated America, the old hierarchies are fading. So today, the far-right has a brand-new tool kit — a belief that Christian law trumps the will of the voters, or that vote counts don’t matter because elections are rigged (although they aren’t), or merely faith in the raw power of imposing unqualified candidates on the body politic.
I commend the entire article to your attention.
A Notion of Immigrants 0
At the Portland Press-Herald, Victoria Hugo-Vidal exposes the dirty little secret of the anti-immigration crowd. A nugget:
The first would be to mandate the use of E-Verify at every employer in America. E-Verify is a simple government system that checks to make sure a person is legally allowed to work in America, using records from the Social Security Administration – to see if the employee has a legitimate Social Security number – and from the Department of Homeland Security. . . .
So why aren’t we, as a country, using these two very simple steps to cut down on demand for undocumented labor? Because big businesses and politicians don’t actually want to do that.
Follow the link for her reasoning.